A rough guide for a beginner...

Playing as England, International only.

Ive got the test match side of things ok, its pretty tough as England but we managed to beat Sri Lanka 2-1 in the opening series of the game. I was using mostly experienced players except for Strauss and Hutchinson.

Ive only just been playing the game recently and only just discovered this forum. Ive seen a few of the posts saying England become a good team after 4 or 5 seasons and the likes of Bell, Pieterson, Bassano etc. come good. I was wondering, do you guys pick them from the start, or after a few seasons to let them mature first? I only picked Strauss and Hutchinson as they were 24/25 y.o. and the likes of Bell are 20 y.o. Is that too young?

Also are there any other spinners who get good test figures after Giles? And who do you normally use to open after Trescothic and Vaughan?

OK, to my BIG problem... ODI's

I got pelted by SL and India in the tri-angular. I just cant seem to find an even vaguely succesfull tactic to approach the game with. Ive been trying when i bat to start on 3 bars (4 in good conditions) and go up from there. Im kinda hoping someone sticks and makes a big innings somewhere along the line.

When bowling i usually stick to 2 bars to keep it tight, and have an average to defensive field, but ge whacked at between 4.5 and 6 an over!! I do well to got 3 an over when batting!!

And who are some good ODI players? Do you go for more experience or blood the youth?

Sorry i know it seems like im asking about 20 questions!! Im new & keen, what can i say!!

Depends which year of ICC you're using. Davies is useful on 2000, but then he imploded as a bowler. On 2002, Graeme Swann and Ian Fisher are decent spinners who can also bat, as is Chris Schofield. Matt Bulbeck's a good allrounder to boot, and you can get a very long batting lineup, even carrying Matty Hoggard at 11. Finger-spinners tend to over-perform due to the coding of the game, I've even won ODI series in India/Pakistan with all-spin attacks.

As for ODI tactics, I very, very rarely change the bowling aggression levels and tend to rely on bowling changes as the range of my tactics. Batting wise, starting off at 4 and then raising it as your settled bars increase is my general rule of thumb, obviously with counter-adjustments should things go tits up.

I don't think 20 is too young for a Test debut if the guy's good enough - if he's better than what you currently have, then pick him! An important thing to keep track of as England boss is Second Team averages at the start of new seasons for re-generated "rookie" players. 60+ batting, or 17- bowling are usually indicators that they'll be able to hack Test cricket.

I was using Mareneschas(sp?) as my all rounder in the first test as Freddy was so out of form. He did ok too, had a knock of 35 and picked up 3 wickets over 2 innings. How important is form though? As ive picked batsmen who are in the 90's on form but still got out cheap. If you had Vaughan on 10% form would you pick him or give someone a debut?

Any more good tips or good player guides for test & ODI's would be great!!

Mascarenhas is a reasonable backup I suppose. Vaughan isn't desperately good on the game (remember, this was pre-2002 season, when certain people were even questioning his England place [whistles innocently]), but taking it to the situation where you have a class batsman out of form, I'd always pick him over the less talented form player - but when bringing in a debutant I'll try to pick him when he's in good nick.